Archive
Readings for 10/3
Hi folks,
Here are the readings for next Monday. Let me know if you have any questions.
Welch
http://www.knightcommission.org/images/pdfs/1991-93_KCIA_report.pdf
http://www.knightcommission.org/images/pdfs/2001_knight_report.pdf
Sharrif Floyd and the NCAA
In a blog posting for the Orlando Sentinel, Rachel George relates the story of Sharrif Floyd, a defensive tackle for the University of Florida. The NCAA suspended Floyd for two games this season for accepting several thousand dollars in benefits from a mentor while in high school. Floyd, a native of Philadelphia, was the top-rated defensive tackle recruit in the country two years ago and now is a sophomore at Florida. The punishment prompted sharp criticism of the NCAA from fans and coaches, including Florida head coach Will Muschamp. Floyd himself reported the expenses to Florida officials and the NCAA. Muschamp and others noted that Floyd, coming from an impoverished family, did not receive preferential treatment because “there was nothing preferential about his life.”
This is the latest in a series of incidents in which athletes have gotten in trouble for accepting benefits, in some cases from personal acquaintances and friends–like Floyd’s mentor–who had no ties to the University of Florida. Other cases include those of the University of Georgia’s Jarvis Jones and Baylor University’s Perry Jones (no relations). Jarvis Jones was cleared of having received impermissible benefits from a club basketball coach, but both Perry Jones and Floyd will miss games and have to pay back money received from local benefactors. The situations exemplify one of the NCAA’s central, but most controversial, principles: that amateur student-athletes should not receive benefits not available to students as a whole. Not from boosters, not from the sale of their jerseys, and not from high school mentors. The thinking goes: Why should a kid receive money just because he’s 300 pounds and can move his feet, while the 110-pound kid sitting next to him doesn’t have a chance at the same rewards?
By suspending Floyd, the NCAA is trying to send a message about the consequences of taking money on the side, even if athletes are impoverished, hoping that coaches, boosters, and others will spread the word that this is unacceptable.
George does a good job of channelling the frustration felt by the benefactors, the coaches, and others who say that they are just trying to help a kid, and that the NCAA has come down hard on an athlete who told the truth and did nothing overtly wrong, like accepting free tattoos or allowing themselves to be feted by agents or boosters. She does not follow the argument to the conclusion being pushed by many fans–even some conference commissioners–that paying athletes, or at least increasing the value of a scholarship, would be fairer than the current arrangement, and also would provide an incentive not to accept impermissible benefits. She also does not give the NCAA the opportunity to make its argument for the ethical considerations of impermissible benefits. This is a blog post, so she may be assuming that readers would get that information from other posts, but the omissions raise interesting questions about what we should expect readers to get from a given story and what we should expect them to know going in.
Response to: Miami Players Declared Ineligible
The ongoing incident involving the University of Miami is, indeed, one that will negatively affect Miami football for this season, and for seasons to come. So far, eight athletes have been declared ineligible for this season of play—eight athletes who could have contributed loads of talent to college football this season. Worst of all, more player ineligibility could be on the way—all thanks to the irresponsible behavior of football booster, Nevin Shapiro. Nevin Shapiro, along with virtually every individual linked to the University of Miami will now face a plethora of consequences, all of which could lead to an irreversible downfall of Miami football.
Though the University of Miami seems to have stolen the spotlight over the past few weeks, incidents of NCAA violations are certainly not limited to south Florida. Violations of NCAA rules are occurring in football programs across the country. We all remember the incident involving superstar wide receiver AJ Green last season at the University of Georgia, or the uproar over transfer quarterback Cameron Newton at Auburn. Incidents such as these seem to be taking over the college football realm, and unfortunately this type of takeover is casting a shadow of negativity over college football everywhere. Let us not forget the positive aspects of collegiate level football, for these are the reasons why we become truly excited every Saturday during the fall. NCAA violations aside, college football is one of the greatest pastimes of our time.
Lindsay Lastinger
Texas A&M Begins Process of Moving To SEC
This article by Pete Thamel of the New York Times discusses the official beginning of Texas A&M trying to move to the SEC from the Big 12. Although it has been obvious that Texas A&M has been flirting with the SEC for a while now, the school’s president, R. Bowen Loftin, formally announced in a letter to the Big 12 that they would be exploring their options concerning conference movement. However, the letter was not a “notice of withdrawal”. Instead, A&M merely asked that the Big 12 give them some sort of outline as to how to go about the process of possible conference realignment.
Thamel then went on to discuss what the letter meant for the Big 12. The ball is now in their court, as they now have to decide what the terms will be for A&M’s departure and what A&M’s buyout will be if they do leave. They have already launched a committee to search for a school to replace A&M, as most think that A&M will make the move to the SEC by the next football season.
Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe did announce that the conference does want Texas A&M to remain a member of the Big 12, but that they will pursue other options aggressively if need be. Thamel then cites a source with knowledge of the Big 12’s discussions that they would most likely target one of either Notre Dame, Arkansas, or BYU.
The author then gets into the finances of a possible move, and says that A&M will likely have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 million to leave the Big 12. The SEC is just concerned about the legality of the move, and wants to make sure A&M handles everything correctly. Thamel points out that any opposition by SEC schools has not yet been seen and quotes a member of Vanderbilt’s athletic department who also pointed out that the conference would most likely target another 14th team if A&M did indeed make the move.
This possible move has huge ramifications for numerous parties, namely the Big 12 and its members, the SEC and its members, A&M, and the entire NCAA. The move would cause the Big 12 to have to find a replacement school, and they would lose one of their most popular teams that brings in a lot of revenue. The SEC would in turn have to find another new member to balance the conference out and would probably make a lot of money through the expansion to a new market area. A&M would also come out of the deal looking good, as they will make a lot more money in the SEC, the nation’s best and most popular conference. The NCAA will be affected because the move could start a whole series of moves bringing the NCAA to a superconfer
Tragedy at Notre Dame Triggers New Video Towers Built at the University of Florida
Response to article by:
Michael DiRocco
Jacksonville Times-Union
20 August 2011
Football programs of the collegiate level go to great lengths to ensure a degree of excellence throughout the college football season. These efforts—costly as they may be—are considered crucial to a team’s success. Several athletic programs across the country have invested in the use of hydraulic lifts to film practice sessions—an investment that proved deadly for a student videographer at Notre Dame nearly one year ago. The news of 20 year old Declan Sullivan’s death after being blown down from a hydraulic tower rocked the college football world, causing many athletic programs to self evaluate the safety of their own filming technologies. This article discusses the University of Florida’s recent decision to install six, permanent steel towers in and around their practice facilities. These towers, which cost the school $675,000, meet safety standards and will be used to film practice for the upcoming football season.
The subject matter of this article affects several groups of people, the most obvious being those individuals responsible for filming football practices at the University of Florida. Towers now meet hurricane standards and are now equipped with covered roofs and lightning rods, ensuring that videographers are in a safer, more comfortable environment. The content of this article may also have an affect on videographers at other institutions, as the actions taken by the University of Florida may inspire other athletic programs to do the same. Additionally, this article will certainly have an affect on the family of Declan Sullivan—a tragedy-stricken family, likely to be grateful for the safety precautions taken in honor of their son.
This article covers most all of the major points of the issue concerning the incident at Notre Dame, as well as the actions taken by the University of Florida in response to this tragedy. The article quotes several important individuals including, Dave Houts, the director of video services at Florida, and even Declan Sullivan, the victim of the tragedy at Notre Dame. The only information that is lacking in this article is the thoughts and opinions of the student videographers at Florida, as a request to speak to these individuals was declined. Despite this slight lack of information, this article covers most all the points necessary to make it both informative and readable. The actions of the University of Florida, though a rival school to many teams of the Southeastern Conference, are commendable, and hopefully repeatable by football programs across the nation.
Lindsay Lastinger
Impact of Miami Hurricane Booster Scandal
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2011/08/17/1696515/alabama-football-crimson-tide.html
It’s been a little over a month since Yahoo! promised college football fans with a scandal that would they described as a “10”, and on Tuesday, they finally published their story which undoubtedly rocked the college football landscape. Although the Miami Hurricane athletic department still shoulders much of the embarrassment, The Ledger-Enquirer’s Michael Casagrande explains how this scandal might affect other schools such as Alabama. Jeff Scoutland and Joe Pannunzio, two coaches recently hired by Alabama from Miami, were each named by a Miami booster in a report describing multiple recruiting violations. Their future with the University of Alabama is unclear as the university refused to comment on the situation.
Since the booster’s accounts of the rule violations date back to 2002, the scandal branches itself out to other schools via hiring of former UM coaches and even former recruits. Schools like Alabama do not have to worry about direct punishment from the NCAA due to hiring “dirty” coaches because recruiting violations do not follow coaches to different schools. However, it is still a black eye to the schools with these coaches and if the allegations are true then you can expect to see a lot of unemployed coaches within the next few months. After Randy Shannon’s firing last season, the diaspora of former Miami assistants is wide. Florida wide receivers coach Aubrey Hill was also named in Charles Robinson’s Yahoo! report.
But it’s the players that most universities are worried about. Any Miami recruit who received extra benefits loses their amateur status and is ineligible to play collegiate football, regardless whether or not they actually received the money from the school they’re attending. Georgia’s tight-end Orson Charles and Florida’s highly touted Andre Debose and Matt Patchan were all named by Shapiro who described taking recruits to parties and even once paying for an abortion.
I remain skeptical of any scandal allegations without hard evidence backing it up. Just tune-in to the Paul Finebaum show some time and listen to the ridiculous, unsubstantiated claims made each day by a person claiming to have an inside source. This story is still in its infancy, but hopefully we will soon see more named sources, e-mails, phone records, and bank account transcripts which would all be useful information to make the story more credible. It’ll be interesting to see how the situation works itself out as the landscape of college football changes with conference expansion. There couldn’t be a more inconvenient time for this story to break as Miami now has to worry about falling out of the “Big Three” in the state of Florida while Florida State flirts with SEC and has been dominating in-state recruiting of late.
Casagrande does a good job of explaining how this story affects his Alabama’s program. While he couldn’t go very in-depth due to Alabama’s mum stance on the subject, he still brought to light the impact Yahoo!’s story could have around the college football world. There isn’t much for him to change as he is simply states facts and leaves it to the reader to imply what sort of punishment, if any, Alabama or any school left with the scraps of the Miami program will receive.
A request from Dr. Suggs
Hi folks,
Please make sure to put your name in the “post tags” field, down on the right-hand column in this screen. Thanks!
Welch
First-Year Odyssey: College Sports and the Media
This is a blog for a seminar on college sports and the media in the University of Georgia’s First-Year Odyssey program. Content will be submitted by students in the class over the course of the fall semester in 2011. The instructor is Dr. Welch Suggs of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Please email me with any questions at wsuggs@uga.edu.
View Welch Suggs's profile
College Sports and the Media 